Volunteering can help young people develop invaluable leadership skills as well as make their CVs stand out to potential employers, according to the Institute for Employment Studies.
Volunteering at companies based in serviced offices and other buildings offers volunteers a deeper insight into the realities of the working world by delegating more responsibility to young people that ordinarily they are not used to.
Becci Newton, senior research fellow at the institute, said the experience could also offer people “a bit of a reference about their abilities”.
She said: “Volunteering is quite different in that young people have a greater opportunity to perhaps develop leadership skills than they might in work, because they are able to devise to a greater extent or suggest their own projects that they might take forward.”
Added together these things make any CV stand out.
Recently research by Allen & Overy found that work experience amongst young people is as popular as ever.
It found that 88 per cent of 16 to 18 year-olds have been on some form of work experience, although many said it left them with no clear idea of which career avenue to pursue.
